


Gurgle

by teamchaosprez



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Mermaid Lapis Lazuli (Steven Universe), Mermaids, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 01:06:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9633233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: Of all the things Peridot expected to find on the beach, a half-dead fish lady curled around a crying baby was not one of them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HOO BOY I WANTED SOME FRESH LAPIDOTS and this idea has been swimming (huehuehue) around in my head lately so why not
> 
> steven is like 25  
> peri is 18  
> connie is 23  
> lapis' age is a spoiler
> 
> Inspired by this http://kookiemastah.tumblr.com/post/152083152506/lapidot-modern-mermaid-au-where-peridot-ends-up

The evening was calm, the tail end of the sunset ducking underneath the horizon and making the sand look an enchanting red in color. The salty sea air was biting, but also comforting in the odd way that the ocean tends to be; waves crashed against the shore, and an air of peace and tranquility settled over the Delmarva coast. The beach was relatively empty, with the exception of one particular patron that frequented this particular space most evenings and the most unexpected of visitors hidden behind a rock a ways away from her.

Initially, when Peridot Diamond heard a baby wailing on the beach, she didn’t think very much of it, if anything at all. Sure, it was a little weird that somebody would bring a newborn for a walk on the beach during the sunset, but she wasn’t about to judge; maybe the kid had been fussing up a storm at home and the parent thought it would calm them down to let them listen to the ocean waves. That was pretty much the exact reason she had stepped away from her programming to take a walk on the beach, after all, and babies did cry a lot.

She didn’t really get concerned until the crying refused to stop for about three minutes. Peridot didn’t know much of anything about parenting, but she was sure that when a baby wasn’t soothed or removed from public within a minute or two, something was wrong. Peridot was made nervous by the idea of going up to a stranger’s wailing baby and trying to help, but all things considered - she did think herself to be a good person, so she hesitated very little before pushing to her feet and hurrying to the tall rock that the apparently distressed infant was sourcing its noise from.

She didn’t know what she expected to find when she peeked around the rock, but it certainly wasn’t a pretty young looking fish lady that honestly looked pretty dead curled around a baby with wild white hair.

The mermaid had blue hair that fanned out on the sand, and her eyes were closed in a look that might have been peaceful if not for the sickly tone of her skin and the fact that she didn’t seem to be breathing. Her lower half looked something like the tail of a great white shark, and was about twice the size of her terrifyingly thin abdomen - Peridot wasn’t a doctor and knew next to nothing about the elusive colonies of fish people off the east coast, but she was pretty sure that it wasn’t good for one’s ribs to be so clearly shown through her skin. The webs of her hands were a little torn, and blood encrusted the gills lining the sides of her neck - bruises mottled her skin, and though there were patches of scales along her skin, some seemed to have been torn off.

Oh, and she was also topless, but Peridot wasn’t about to concentrate on that. Much.

The baby she was holding, on the other hand, looked rather human. She had dark skin that was marred by a few shallow cuts, and she was swaddled tightly in a dark green blanket made from materials Peridot didn’t necessarily know the name of. Her hands were clenched into tiny fists, which she waved in the air angrily with a screwed up face as she continued to wail. She probably would have looked like a full blooded human if not for the shark like teeth protruding from her gums and the flared gills along the sides of her neck.

Peridot was broken out of her shock by the knowledge that she probably needed to get the child out of the grip of her dead mother and bring her to safety - maybe to the cops or something, they would know what to do in this situation. There were hardly any doctors she knew of that would be able to help with mermaids, after all, and she wasn’t really sure if she could get her dear friend Steven Quartz Universe to the beach during his date night with Connie in time to help. She kneeled down beside the battered mermaid and gently began to pick up the infant…

Only to be startled and jump back a few centimeters when long claws suddenly extracted and clung to the baby’s blanket. The mermaid’s dark blue eyes flew open, and she still looked pretty pitifully weak even though she was glaring rather heatedly at the human. “No,” she croaked out, her breathing a little more obvious but very clearly labored. “No, do not take her from me. Do not take my baby. Please.” Her voice lost heat as she spoke, taking on a desperate tone as the expression in her dark eyes turned into a pleading one.

“I’m here to help,” Peridot responded as quietly as she could, reaching to take the baby again. “I’m going to call my friend, and he can help get both of you all patched up, okay? But the baby seems pretty upset, and I know some basic first aid, so I’m just going to make sure that her cuts are all covered. I’ll stay right here. She won’t leave your sight, not even if you pass out again. I promise.” She crossed her heart with her fingers, as though that would make any sort of difference in convincing her.

The mermaid stared at her with searching eyes for several moments, but she seemed to relax and retracted her claws once more, her position going limp again. Peridot took the baby as gently as humanly possible in her arms, and carefully ripped a strip of fabric off of the oversized t-shirt she was wearing. The baby continued to bawl on even as she gently dabbed at the bloodied areas of her face, lips tucked downward into a frown - and when she was satisfied, she didn’t hesitate in pulling out her cell phone and quickly calling Steven, hoping he would get there.

“Hey, what’s up?” Her friend questioned on the first ring, and even Peridot was mildly surprised that he would interrupt his date that quickly while his phone was ringing. “Connie’s in the bathroom, so please make it quick, Peri. Is that a baby crying?” Ah. That explained it… but knowing her time was limited only really added to the pressure in speaking up.

“Um, I was on a walk at the beach, and I came across this mermaid that’s really badly hurt, and, uh, yeah, she had a baby, and said baby is also a little bit injured. I helped the kid all I can, but I’m really clueless on what I can do for the mom, so can you just… please get down here? I’m by the really big rock around the entrance by the Big Donut, so, uh… please. Come help me out, I don’t want either of them to die on me.”

There was silence on the other end for a few moments, and Peridot was genuinely terrified that he might say no, that his date with his girlfriend was more important. But before she could really entertain that thought, she heard a sound on the other end like the rustling of a coat, and Steven spoke up again. “Okay. Just make sure that she keeps breathing, and I’ll just let Connie know what’s going on. I’ll be at the beach in five to ten minutes, okay? Just hold tight until I get there.”

She could have cried from relief. “Okay. Thank you so much.”

* * *

 

Half an hour later, Peridot sat on the top of the toilet seat as Steven examined the fish lady in her bathtub, still in his quite fancy dinner wear. She felt a little guilty about disrupting his date for a complete stranger that she found on the beach, but she wasn’t really surprised by how he jumped at the opportunity to help somebody that might not have made it otherwise. He was a good person, really and truly, and had always put the needs of others above his own; he probably would have even come to help this mermaid if she just had a little scrape.

What Peridot didn’t understand, though, was why this weird woman needed to stay in  _ her _ bathtub. The hospital doesn’t have what it needs to treat mermaids, Steven said, because their existence was a relatively new development and it was rare to even find a medical school that would teach what was known about treating them. As for why the bathtub had to be  _ Peridot’s _ in particular - Steven just said that he and Connie didn’t own a bath and he didn’t want to bother anybody with the request, so since Peridot had two bathrooms and was a trusted friend, she was given the  _ honor _ of babysitting the badly injured mermaid. Which she wasn’t complaining about, because really, this fish woman desperately needed the help… and she was kind of attractive, honestly.

_ Shut the fuck up, Peridot Marie Diamond, you useless lesbian. _

As for the baby, she was relatively healthy. Just some cuts on her face that would probably leave scars, and Steven claimed that they were probably from claws of some sort. That was another reason to take the mermaid and hybrid under her wing - Peridot didn’t know what would attack a woman with a defenseless baby, but whatever would, she would need to protect them from. Not that Peridot could protect much of anybody, but it was the thought that counts. Either way, there was absolutely no doubt in either of their minds that the infant was going to be just fine.

The mother, on the other hand… Steven was optimistic about her prospects, since she apparently had the strength to try to prevent Peridot from taking her baby - “She has a strong will, that’s very important!” - and didn’t really have any internal injuries that the doctor could see. Peridot, however, was not. She didn’t think it was a good sign when there was blood coming out of somebody’s gills, and she could foresee the mental problems that a traumatic experience would dredge up in her.

“You’re  _ sure _ she’s going to be okay?” The programmer asked cautiously, feeling a little bad about having any doubt in Steven at all but wanting to be completely certain. She wasn’t trained in medicine; she couldn’t exactly help if something were to go wrong overnight. Hell, she barely knew how she was going to take care of the baby until Steven showed up again in the morning, even with the special mermaid formula she had been given to feed her with.

“A hundred percent,” Steven gave her a reassuring smile and reached his strong arms to wrap around her, and Peridot allowed it without protest. Hugs from her friend were generally pretty nice, if a little constricting. “Just call me if you have any concerns, okay? I’ll keep my phone on all night, but I doubt you’ll have any trouble. She seems pretty beat, she might be unconscious until at least the morning. The baby is about the age where they start sleeping through the night, and even if she doesn’t you have formula and diapers. I’m sure all three of you will make it until tomorrow, Dottie.”

“Don’t call me that,” Peridot grumbled, pretty annoyed by the use of the nickname she hated so much but fairly comforted by her friend’s words. She crossed her arms and glanced over at the mermaid - she was cleaned up, and though her skin was still bruised and a little scraped up, the human could see the youthful and not quite human beauty that she possessed in her fine features and peaceful expression. With a deep breath, the human prevented herself from staring, and simply gave her friend a light, playful punch in the shoulder. “Okay, you’d better get back to Connie. I’ll call you if I need anything.”

“Don’t miss me too much!”

And with that, Steven left, abandoning her into the weirdest roommate situation she had ever been a part of.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot gets to know her new roommate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man the feedback on that first chapter was SPECTACULAR, i didn't get to get so many kudos and comments just with one chapter within a week!!! thank you guys so much, you've really given me the drive to keep going with this fic!

The evening and beginning of the night passed by mercifully peacefully; the mermaid continued to sleep, and the child was a lot more well behaved when she was fed and no longer bleeding. Actually, she was pretty cute, even if the way her emerald eyes closely followed Peridot could get a little unnerving - she got the sense that she was more intelligent and understood more than a fully human baby would, and might understand exactly what was going on. That might have scared her if there was a single question in her mind that this kid might not be a human hybrid; but there wasn’t, so she was as far from concerned as she could get.

She was in bed early, as was her routine during the days before she had classes to attend or projects to work on for her freelance programming business. By the time Peridot drifted off to sleep, confident that the mermaid was still peacefully unconscious in her bathtub and the child was fast asleep in the bathroom sink (she had wanted to keep her near her mother and in water just in case), she had all but forgotten why she had been so worried about this entire situation. Everything seemed to be progressing as it normally did - just with two extra intelligent beings in her house.

The peace was fairly short-lived, though. Peridot was roused from a rather intense dream about Kate McKinnon in character as Kellyanne Conway by a splash and thud from her bathroom. She sat up quickly enough to give herself quite the headrush and, unaware for a moment that she had guests in the house due to having just been awoken from a deep sleep, was fairly convinced that somebody had broken into her house with the intent to rob her or murder her or do both at the same time.

She sprinted down the short hallway of her house and wrenched open the bathroom door, very prepared to fight somebody to the death in a D.va tank top and alien boxers, and was very confused for a moment by the sight of a still pretty battered mermaid laying on the tiles of her floor and staring at her with wide eyes. Peridot stared for just a moment and, almost as soon as she processed what was going on, decided that it probably wasn’t ideal for this fish woman thing to be trying to move already.

With a heavy sigh, Peridot walked over to her guest and reached to grab her sides and lift her back into the bathtub, but was smacked back by a long, powerful tail and almost knocked over. “I’m just trying to help,” she spoke up, defensively and maybe a little annoyed, holding her hands up in a gesture of surrender and peace. “You shouldn’t be moving yet. You were almost dead when I found you, and I don’t think that’s a possibility that’s entirely crossed out if you strain yourself.” The mermaid glared at her, but allowed Peridot to step forward again and hoist her up and lower her back into the slightly bloodied bathwater. She made a mental note to drain and refill it in the morning.

“Where am I, and where is my daughter?” the mermaid asked, her voice making it more than clear how wary she was of the human. Peridot supposed she didn’t blame her; she had apparently been through quite the ordeal before washing up on the beach, but she was still pretty annoyed after having been lashed out at when she was just trying to offer assistance, so it was difficult to resist the urge to roll her eyes at the question.

Even if it was a pretty valid one.

“You’re in Beach City, in my bathroom. My friend - he’s a doctor - got you all patched up, and he said you should stay put for a while, so you’re staying with me until you’re all healed.” She glanced over the mermaid for a moment, looking for any injuries or anything, before nodding slightly and straightening up. “Your daughter’s fine, she’s sleeping right now… here.” She carefully lifted the baby from where she was snoozing in the sink, and upon seeing the mermaid reach her arms out with a pleading expression, handed her over without any hesitation.

The mermaid seemed to be pretty relieved to at least know that she and her daughter were safe, and held the baby close to her chest, murmuring something softly in another language. She lowered herself into a more relaxed position in the bathtub, the baby snoring quietly on her chest, and glanced up at Peridot with a searching stare. “... Well, thank you for your assistance and for taking care of Malachite while I was asleep. “I’m not sure if I can stay long enough to heal completely, but I… will do my best to stay put and follow instructions unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Peridot wasn’t sure if that was completely good, but it was something, so she would take it. With the excitement over, she was beginning to feel a little sleepy again, but she wanted to make sure that her guest was at least somewhat settled in and wasn’t about to try to crawl back to the ocean with her baby between her teeth or something. “I’m Peridot,” she introduced herself bluntly, seating herself on the floor next to the bathtub and being mindful of the puddle left when the mermaid rolled herself out. “Um, what’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Lapis Lazuli,” the mermaid responded as though the answer had been the most obvious one in the world, or as though she was irritated that a human was asking her so many questions. “And before you ask, yes, I am feeling fine, and no, I am not going to try to leave again. You can leave now, and I will try to get more rest.” Her dark eyes narrowed into a glare at the human, and Peridot felt a little vulnerable and threatened under her bitter stare, so she rose to her feet once more.

She hesitated, not sure if she wanted to leave a conscious stranger unsupervised in her house, but eventually nodded slightly - mostly motivated by her longing for more sleep - and began backing out of the bathroom. “Call me if you need anything, okay? I have more painkillers if you start to feel a lot of pain again, and my friend said that I can call him if you’re having issues, so--”

“I will,” Lapis responded before Peridot could even finish thinking, her glare becoming less heated and more tired… and the human figured that, at the very least, she should let her rest.

So she left the room.

* * *

 

“I told you I’m on my way,” Steven’s voice spoke from the phone Peridot was holding against her ear with her shoulder as she got ready for her nine a.m. class. “Jeeze, Peri, I didn’t think you’d freak out if she woke up. I seriously doubt she’ll do something stupid to kill herself if she’s left alone for fifteen minutes, so you can go to class. And I’ll take care of everything until my shift, okay?”

“I just want to make sure that I know what I’m doing,” Peridot sighed heavily as she pulled a sweatshirt on, glancing in the open bathroom door and finding that Lapis was still asleep and holding her child to her body. “I barely even know what a mermaid  _ is, _ Steven. I’m a programmer, not a marine biologist! I know she’s more intelligent than a normal fish, and I know she’s kinda close to a human, but I don’t…” She cut herself off with a heavy sigh, running her hand down her face. “Just… is there a mermaid wiki or something I can find information on?”

“I dunno, maybe you should Gurgle it.”

It took Peridot a moment to get the pun, and when she did, her immediate reaction was to groan in annoyance and her second - which popped into her head as soon as Steven started laughing - was to throw her phone against the wall. She did the former, but held back on the latter. “I can’t believe you,” she spoke in a tone that had barely recovered from her groan, leaning against the wall of the hallway. “Hey, I’m gonna hang up so I can make sure Lapis is fine and go to class. See you in a couple hours.”

“Byyyye,” her friend’s voice was cheerful, the word drawn out before Peridot rolled her eyes and pressed the red button to hang up the call and put her phone in her sweatshirt pocket. She appreciated Steven’s help, she really did, but she kind of wished he could be more serious about it sometimes. It was in his nature to look on the bright side of everyone and everything and try to find something light to joke about in every situation, but she couldn’t help but be annoyed.

She stepped into the bathroom and hesitated just a moment upon seeing the peaceful expression on the mermaid’s sleeping face before walking over and shaking her less bruised shoulder as carefully as she could. Lapis’ tired blue eyes fluttered open, and her sleepy face looked so tired and innocent when she looked over at the human - Peridot questioned how anybody could ever want to hurt somebody so thin and pretty, but she pushed those gay thoughts out as soon as they came. “Hey, I’m going to leave for a little bit, but my friend - the doctor that helped you out, remember? - is coming over to take care of you while I’m gone. He’ll be here soon.” Her voice was a lot softer and more concerned than she had initially intended, but she supposed she wasn’t too upset about it.

The mermaid stared at her for a moment as if searching for some sort of ulterior motive or reason to distrust her, but eventually nodded slightly, blue hair falling into her face. “I don’t need to be babysat,” she spoke in a quiet tone that didn’t hold any heat to it, but didn’t really object, glancing at her daughter before relaxing back into the lukewarm and freshly changed water of the bath.

“I know you don’t, but you’re healing,” Peridot shrugged, giving her a small smile and gently patting her head before straightening to her feet. “Try not to die in the next ten minutes, okay? I don’t like the whole dead fish smell, it takes forever to clean out.” She tried to keep her voice calm and joking, and upon seeing Lapis roll her eyes knew that she had succeeded in keeping the mood somewhat light. (She was already getting to be fond of this mermaid, and didn’t know if that was a good thing.)

“I’ll do my best, but I make no promises,” Lapis responded in a sarcastic and droll tone, stretching her tail over the edge of the tub and raising an eyebrow at the human. Her expression turned into one of questioning, her head tilting slightly as she studied Peridot - who was going to be late for her class, but couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment. “Why are you helping me? You’re an apparently busy human, and I’m some mermaid that washed up on the beach. Most beings I know would have just left me to die, let alone a total stranger.”

“Well, I know it’s not exactly believable considering the terror that fishers and pirates and shit wreak on the seas, but not all humans are cruel. I consider myself one of the good ones. I wasn’t just going to let somebody die without help, especially someone who would be leaving a small child motherless.” Peridot shrugged, a simple roll of her shoulders, as she glanced at her phone and winced at the time. “Crap, I need to go. I promise I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” She said this while already backing quickly out of the room. “See you later.”

“Bye,” Lapis lazily replied and raised her hand to give a slight wave and watched her go.

As she ran to the local college, Peridot tried - really hard - to avoid thinking about how she was beginning to really like her non human guest.

In more ways than one, potentially.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis talks to Steven and also tries fish sticks for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm kinda slowing down with the fanfics rn because i'm working on a novel and have been focusing on it a little bit

Lapis was very, very sore. She was putting effort into hiding it when she wasn’t alone, but she felt like somebody had hit her with a yacht and then fed her to a shark, and she could only assume that about half of it was because of the injuries she had sustained and half of it was because she was without adequate access to saltwater. Not that she was going to complain about the lack of saltwater, of course; any water at all would keep her alive, saltwater was just what she was used to and it was odd going without it for too long. She was sure the withdrawals would pass.

Honestly, she was just glad that she was alive. She hadn’t been expecting to survive her final encounter with her attacker, and hadn’t expected to survive swimming across the globe to escape. Her biggest hope had just been that Malachite would get out of it alive and healthy, so the guarantee of safety and her ability to keep close to her daughter was more than elating. Even if she was stuck in a human’s bathtub, sitting tight and alone and looking around and checking the drain every so often to make sure that nothing that wanted to hurt her was crawling into the house with outstretched claws and a terrible grin. It was a ridiculous fear, but one she held nonetheless.

Her skin was beginning to dry, and she found herself wishing that the tub was a little deeper as she struggled to find a position where she could be completely submerged. It was in the middle of this rather awkward process that she heard the door open, and found herself sitting up less than gracefully and relieved that the baby she was holding had not woken up in annoyance. She flexed her shark-like tail, and stared with curiosity as a young man with dark curly hair stepped into the bathroom.

She supposed that this must be the doctor friend that Peridot had mentioned before she left, but the mermaid was still cautious. Lapis’ trust had been kind of affected by what she had been through before washing up on a human beach, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about having to rely on strangers. Peridot, at least, was short enough to seem relatively harmless and was nice enough to seem trustworthy. This human man practically radiated calmness and kindness, but he was tall enough that Lapis began to feel nervous and tried to hide her baby by her side.

“Hi, Lapis! I’m Steven. I’m the doctor that made sure your bleeding stopped and brought you here. Peri told me that you had a pretty peaceful night, but that you tried to escape before she introduced herself.” The human let out a little laugh and knelt by the bathtub, extending a hand to her. Lapis, knowing bits and pieces about human culture, cautiously brought Malachite back to her chest and placed her hand in his, allowing him to give it a hearty shake. “It’s really impressive that you were even able to move that much given the extent of your injuries. Most of your body is either cut or bruised, and while you didn’t sustain any damage to your bones, you lost a lot of blood. How are you feeling now?”

_ Doctors, _ Lapis remembered, were human medical professionals. That meant that this man was able to help her get better and get back into the ocean soon. She also figured that meant she  _ probably _ shouldn’t lie to him about how she was feeling. “Very sore,” she responded, shifting to sit up easier and glance him over. “It’s a little bit more difficult for me to move. I was running on adrenaline last night, I think, which made me a little more numb to the pain.”

“We don’t know much about mermaid anatomy, but that would make sense for a human, so I’m going to guess that’s normal.” Steven reached over for her, and she flinched back momentarily before permitting him to reach out and gently hold onto her arm, examining the multiple bruises and cuts there. “I’m assuming you’ll be out of commission for at least a few months, to make sure that you’re fine and your psychological and physical health are both in order. You’ll have to explain to me what happened to you, too, because mermaids are under protection from land threats. Since you’re as intelligent as humans are. If it was a human that did this, they could be arrested, and--”

“It wasn’t,” Lapis interrupted quickly, frowning slightly and looking Steven over again before offering her daughter to be examined. He took hold of the baby with a gentleness that surprised the mermaid a little, but she still kept an eye on him as he checked over her body and shone a flashlight into her eyes and ears. “She’s… she wasn’t from either land nor sea. I don’t think she would take kindly to me spreading word about her existence, though. She was pretty pissed with me already.” She gulped slightly and reached to take her baby back, relieved when Malachite was returned to her grip. “Look, I don’t want to be here for very long. I need to keep moving before she finds me again - I need to protect myself and Malachite. I don’t  _ have _ a few months to waste, regardless of whether I’m fully recovered or not. I appreciate the concern, though.”

“You are my patient, and I can’t let you go any sooner than I would anybody else, Lapis.” Steven gave her a small frown, moving from a kneeling position into a sitting one. “I mean, you have the right to refuse medical attention, but I seriously think that’s unwise, and I can intervene to save your life if I have to. Which I’m doing right now. You could seriously hurt or kill yourself if you strain yourself trying to run away from whatever attacked you, which isn’t exactly great, you know? Where would that leave poor little Malachite?”

The mermaid wilted a little underneath that perspective, watching her slowly waking baby with a frown. Malachite’s green eyes blinked open and stared quietly at her mother, and she gave a soft gurgle. Lapis was only able to give a small, sad smile - yeah, leaving her daughter motherless was definitely not on her agenda, especially if she died in the open ocean and left her to either starve or be stolen away by her other parent. “I’m just not sure if Malachite and I are safe, and I’m not sure if it’s safe for you and Peridot to be hiding us.”

“Just stop worrying so much, okay? We’ll protect you if anything comes for you,” Steven told her with a smile that seemed to take up most of his face and was a little hard to not return and be brightened up by. “It’s all going to be fine, Lapis, and I promise that as soon as I think you and your daughter are good to go we’ll let you return to the ocean. All you need to do is trust us and try to relax.” His voice was reassuring enough and he had done nothing so far to make Lapis feel like she should distrust him, so she was able to feel at least a little more secure in her decision.

“Okay. I’ll try. As long as you promise me that I can go home soon.”

“On my life, Miss Lazuli.”

* * *

 

Lapis found that she was quite fond of Steven. He was a friendly and kind man, if somewhat naive towards some things, and she was able to consider him a friend and trust him completely by the time Peridot’s two hour class had finished. She was a little bit sad to watch him go, but supposed that she was glad that her actual host was back and was willing to give her some peace while she made lunch for the two of them (after triple checking her dietary needs, which were nearly exactly the same as humans’ but with a much more carnivorous slant. She  _ was _ part shark, after all).

Food sounded almost ridiculously good, actually, as she was struggling to remember the last time she had actually eaten something home cooked and with substance. It had been at least a week - it was a miracle that she had enough milk in her to keep Malachite fed, with how miserably unhealthy her diet had been since she made a run for it out of her ex lover’s residence.

She felt a little guilty, gently stroking the baby’s back and listening to the soft sounds she made as she nursed. A frown appeared across her face as she considered that she might be a failure of a mother; that she might be setting her daughter up for a screwed up and miserable childhood that would mess her up for life. She couldn’t imagine never having stability having a good effect on children. God knows it was less than good for her, and she was very nearly fully grown.

She was a hundred and ten years old, which was the mermaid equivalent of seventeen - eighteen at the oldest. She was surprised by how short the human lifespan was when she asked Peridot her age and learned that she was eighteen years of age - how could they hope to get anything done if they had, she assumed, perhaps fifty to seventy years to live? How did they learn anything? How did they  _ experience _ anything? When she had been asked the same question, she had lied and said that she was seventeen; she didn’t want to be treated any differently.

Malachite, on the other hand, was just a few months old. She grew more rapidly than a full blooded mermaid would; if it weren’t for her other parent’s immortal status, Lapis might have been worried that she would need to watch her baby age and die ancient without her as she remained young and beautiful. She didn’t want to see that. She didn’t even want to think on it - it hurt enough to know that, however briefly she knew them, she would need to outlive her new human friends.

Peridot reentered the room and interrupted her thoughts fairly soon, and handed her a plate with a few rectangular objects on it. Judging by the appetizing smell, it was food - in fact, it almost smelled like cooked fish, albeit with a little bit of influence to it. Curiously, she sniffed at the food momentarily before sinking her teeth into one - it was certainly fish, but it had odd human ingredients mixed in with it that enhanced the taste and made it much more enjoyable. She could say with confidence that she liked the way humans prepared their fish, and ate it quickly as she realized fully how hungry she had been.

Once she finished her lunch, she examined the human quietly as  _ she _ ate, the first time she had enough time to really get a good look. Peridot was short and pale, with freckles spread across her face and blonde hair that she must not have bothered to fix into a presentable look. She wore what Lapis assumed was casual and comfortable clothing, as it was loose and looked to be soft. Glasses were pressed up to her nose and guarded her emerald green eyes, and she had a curious and youthful air to her that spoke that she wanted information and to understand everything.

She was, by Lapis’ standards, very good looking and likable.

She didn’t realize that she had been staring until the human looked up at her with an eyebrow raised. “What are you thinking about?” she asked, her voice in an unamused grumble, and Lapis had to resist the urge to giggle slightly at the way she was spoken to. A blush appeared across Peridot’s face, and it was only then that she turned her attention to Malachite, who was beginning to drift off to sleep again after being awake for a while.

“Nothing,” the mermaid answered, and she realized that she was smiling more than she had in decades.


	4. Chapter 4

Night two began, generally, without incident. Lapis was sleeping peacefully with her child on her chest when Peridot poked her head in to check and make sure that everything was going alright, and when she determined that everything was just fine she retired to her own bedroom in order to work on her computer science homework hunched over her laptop like some creepy little college gremlin. She was so focused on the work swimming before her eyes that she barely even noticed that she had stayed up until roughly two o’clock in the morning before she was startled out of her hyperfocus and dragged back into reality by a loud, terrified scream from the bathroom.

The college student, though she was ill prepared for such an interruption, wasted no time in jumping to her feet and sprinting down the hall and to the bathroom. Shoving the door open, she found the mermaid sitting up straight and wheezing for breath, Malachite nestled in her lap and looking rather disgruntled as her mother tried to recover from whatever fright she had just experienced. Peridot moved quickly to Lapis and, though she avoided touching her, began trying to get her attention and calm her down. She somehow doubted that being touched by someone she barely knew would help the mermaid.

“Hey, Lazuli, look at me,” she spoke, trying to keep her voice soft but demanding despite the soft panic beginning to settle into her own chest. Peridot didn’t know what had scared the mermaid and shaken her up so badly, whether it was a nightmare or not, but she was sure that if it was something reasonable this situation was about as far from ideal as she could get. She wasn’t equipped to fight something off. “Just breathe, okay? Take deep breaths. Breathe with me.”

She then proceeded to take deep breaths, gesturing to and away from herself almost comically to encourage Lapis to stop hyperventilating and calm down somewhat. It took the mermaid a moment to take hold of the rhythm, but when she did it took very little time for Lapis to relax as much as possible and at least calm down from a panic attack. “Can you tell me what happened and how I can help?” Peridot asked, reaching out and - when her guest didn’t flinch away from her hand - gripped her shoulder with as reassuring and soft a hold as possible.

“I’m okay,” Lapis responded before she even had enough time to think about it, her eyes closing as she picked Malachite back up and returned her to her usual spot on her shoulder. “I just had a flashback - a nightmare, I’m fine.” She sighed heavily, tired blue eyes glancing over at Peridot and studying her carefully. “I just need to calm down and go back to sleep. I promise.” She  _ did _ seem to be a lot calmer than she had been before, but the student still frowned, wanting to help further but not sure of how she could do that without pressing and stressing the mermaid out.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she questioned, sitting down on the bathroom floor next to the bathtub and sitting down with her legs crossed and head tilted slightly. “I don’t know how much I can help, but it might be useful to talk and tell me what it was about just so it’s not sitting on your chest all night long.” That sounded reasonable enough, she supposed. She just wanted to help Lapis, really - the last thing she wanted to do was leave her miserable when she could have done something about it.

“It was just about Malachite’s other parent. I had a very strained and pretty bad relationship with her.” Lapis shrugged, as if that wasn’t a really revealing and pretty terrible nugget of information. “I have nightmares about her sometimes, but it’s not really a big deal. I’m sure she has just as many issues because of me.” She sounded like she was lying to try and make it look less extreme and make herself look like less of a victim. Peridot didn’t know how she felt about that, but she knew that it was probably unhealthy for the mermaid to blame herself so thoroughly.

“Well, I’m glad you got out of it,” was what the student responded with, though, the smallest of frowns on her face as she tore her gaze away from Lapis in order to glance over at the wall - easier than continuing to make eye contact. “If you don’t mind me asking,  _ who _ is Malachite’s other parent? Was she a human? I can make better measures to keep her away from you if she is, by filing a restraining order or something. I’m not going to try to get her in trouble, I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

Lapis furrowed her brows as she seemed to think about how to answer, before sighing heavily and lowering herself a little further into the water as if trying to hide. “No, she isn’t human. She is a lava spirit. I don’t think she can get to Beach City, even if she solidifies herself into stone - I’m pretty sure we’re too far away from her volcano for her to even think about it. That’s why I was so close. I don’t want to cause any more trouble with her. I just wanted to get myself and Malachite to somewhere safer.”

“I… can understand that,” the blonde responded with a little bit of hesitation, wanting to ask for more information but not wanting to press and distress Lapis. A lava spirit? She didn’t know that those even existed - she thought those were just fairy tales limited to Disney movies and stories told by rich mothers to explain Pompeii to their kids on family vacations. The scholar in her wanted to ask millions of questions and find out everything there was to know, but the decent person who was friends with the mermaid just wanted to get back to work and let her get some sleep.

Usually, Peridot would listen to her scholar side with little contemplation as far as how Lapis would feel about it, but it was late and she wanted to finish her computer science project by the next day, so she decided to be empathetic and go with her friendly half instead. The student rose to her feet and stretched, a small yawn bringing to her attention that it was a little late to be up and about, and gave the mermaid a smile. “Well, I’m going to get back to my room now. Call me if you need anything, okay?”

Lapis must not have been used to being left alone, because she seemed more surprised and grateful than anything else. “Okay,” she confirmed with a nod, sinking down so that she could relax and giving Peridot a small, tired smile. “Thank you. For making sure I’m okay. I don’t think I’ll have the nightmare again, but I’ll… try to remember to not disturb you if you do.” She seemed like she was going to say something else, but apparently thought better of it, deciding instead to turn her focus to the still awake and beginning to fuss Malachite. “Goodnight, Peri.”

The use of the nickname confused the student for a moment, and usually she might have snapped that she didn’t appreciate the shortening of her name, but she smiled at the mermaid nonetheless and backed away out of the bathroom. “Goodnight, Lapis,” she said, before ducking back out to the hallway and beginning to walk back to her bedroom - though as she went, she decided that she was going to try to do research on lava spirits instead of continuing working on her homework. She figured that she had earned a break after working for several hours, after all.

* * *

 

The sun was up when Peridot awoke, her back feeling desperately achey and her forehead sticky with sweat. She had fallen asleep with her face pressed against the keyboard of her laptop and her spine awkwardly bent with the hunched position she had passed out in, and she sighed heavily as she realized that her day was going to be miserable because of that. Normally, she would get up without hesitation, but instead she decided to flop back into a somewhat natural position on her back and try to stretch the ache out of her back before she made any attempts to get up and move for the day.

It took a few minutes before she decided to give up and check on Lapis, and make sure that she had gotten back to sleep. If the mermaid had called for her sometime during the night, Peridot probably slept through it, and she wanted to make sure that her guest was doing alright and wasn’t upset with her if she  _ did _ just apparently ignore her. Opening the bathroom door was something that caused her an unnecessary amount of anxiety, and upon peeking inside she was relieved to find that Lapis was fast asleep with Malachite dozing on her chest and her face peaceful.

Peridot was about to leave and get herself some breakfast, but instead she found herself - kind of embarrassingly and a lot creepily - just watching Lapis sleep. The mermaid had a bit of a resting bitch face, but the bags underneath her eyes disappeared when she slept, and she looked a lot younger and more peaceful than she did when she was awake. Her breathing was relaxed and slow, her hair was halfway ducked underneath the bath water, and oh god almighty she was really pretty and Peridot was a little too gay for her own good at this point.

The student had to pull her head out of the room before Lapis woke up and was creeped out by Peridot’s staring. The blonde found that her face was bright pink, and slapped herself on the forehead as she groaned slightly. She probably should just get herself some coffee and make breakfast for Lapis and herself before she did anything else that may or may not alienate her new roommate. She didn’t put any thought, though, into the possibility that Lapis might have just been pretending to sleep.

* * *

 

The mermaid stared silently at the closed door, flexing her tail and thinking with her head tilted slightly. Peridot was an odd human - she didn’t have a lot of experience in dealing with them, but she knew that it was unusual for one to just stare at something they weren’t afraid of or stunned by. She couldn’t help but be curious as to why on Earth the blonde might have been startled by the presence of somebody who had been in her bathtub for a few days. There was absolutely no reasoning for it - not that she could really think of, anyway.

As odd as she was, though, Lapis was finding easily that she admired Peridot. She was more kind and understanding than she was used to, and although the same could be said for the other human she had befriended - Steven - at least Peridot didn’t push her for information and data that she was curious about. It would have been easy to just quiz her about anything and everything she was wondering, but she didn’t, and Lapis appreciated the peace and personal space and lack of pressure immensely after having none of either for the last hundred years of her life.

That was more impressive, though, because Peridot was a student. She had to be curious - it would have taken little fault at all to just ask her hundreds of questions about mermaids and lava spirits and anything that she wanted to know. It would have been hard on Lapis, but she would have understood, but she didn’t have to deal with it, and that made her… happy.

Happy. Weird that she could experience that emotion for the first time in a century so far from her natural habitat, while tucked into a human’s bathtub.

She wasn’t going to complain, though.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot's morning ritual gets interrupted by a rather... interesting person at her doorstep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have my entire writing schedule through june 2nd planned out so!!! let's see if i can stick with it.

When Peridot opened the door to her house with the toothbrush still in her mouth and her pajamas still on her body, it was safe to say that she hadn’t been expecting to run into a fairly well dressed and very tall woman with pale hair that looked like she was built mainly of muscles. The blonde was a little startled, and quickly removed the brush from her mouth and tried to give a smile that would hide that there was still toothpaste in her teeth. “Hi, do you need something?” she asked quickly, immediately kicking herself for talking so quickly and awkwardly and wishing that she’d had more warning before a fancy stranger showed up at her doorstep.

“I’m just looking for somebody,” the woman responded, returning the smile - although admittedly in a way that made Peridot honestly afraid that she was about to be eaten. “My girlfriend left a little while ago with our baby daughter, and I wanted to try to find her to see if she wanted to work it out or find some sort of joint custody. Have you seen her anywhere? Her name is Lapis Lazuli, she’s about five foot, has short blue hair.” Of course, the student’s first thought was that sounded  _ suspiciously _ like the mermaid she had taken in, but she didn’t know that she wanted to jump to conclusions.

This woman seemed to be describing a human, after all, and she didn’t  _ look _ like she was anything other than human, so Peridot decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. She wasn’t about to admit that she had a mermaid named Lapis with blue hair sleeping in her bathtub right now, though. She would either sound crazy or illegal at that point. “No, I’m sorry,” she apologized with a shrug, glancing the woman over again. “I hope you find her, though. That sounds like a shitty situation.”

She almost squirmed under the searching stare of the stranger, almost scared for a moment that she looked dishonest. Peridot doubted that she or Lapis was in any sort of danger, because that was a paranoid assumption, but she was beginning to feel more and more unsafe the longer this woman was at her door. Eventually, when she didn’t say anything else, the stranger shrugged and stepped back off the porch. “Oh, I will.” Her voice sounded vaguely threatening, like she had the intent to find her girlfriend even if she needed to kill a few people to do so, but before the student could think on it for too long she spoke again with a second predatory smile. “Thanks, though. Have a nice day.”

“You too.” Peridot nodded, and stayed where she was as the woman turned away from the front door and walked away to head back down the street. She waited for her to be away from the lawn before closing the door with a heavy sigh and walked back into the house, continuing to brush her teeth as she made her way back to the bathroom. She wondered what Lapis would have to say about this.

She spit the toothpaste froth from her mouth in the sink as soon as she entered the bathroom, wrinkling her nose slightly in disgust at having had it in her mouth for too long. She then turned to the mermaid that was slowly waking up in her bathtub, and watched her stretch and yawn for just a moment and letting her wake up. Peridot chose not to dwell on the fact that her eyes lingered on the other for just a moment too long, and decided that she wasn’t going to think on the fact that her face heated up slightly. She was just having these feelings because Lapis was a pretty lady that was staying in her house, she told herself. There was nothing to it besides fleeting attraction.

“So there was somebody at the door a minute ago,” she announced as soon as Lapis seemed alert enough to listen and had begun rousing the sleeping baby resting on her tail, probably to nurse her. “She was looking for her ex girlfriend and infant daughter. Turns out the lady she’s looking for is even named Lapis and has blue hair. Isn’t that a weird coincidence?”

The mermaid didn’t seem to think so, as she tensed up and squinted at Peridot with suspicious dark eyes. “What did she look like?” she demanded immediately, sounding more upset than anything else. In the dark tone of her voice, she even sounded… a little bit afraid. “Lapis is an uncommon name among mermaids. I can only imagine it’s even stranger for humans. That sounds more than a little bit strange to me,” she explained quickly, apparently becoming a little panicked but trying to hide it. “I hope you didn’t tell anybody that I’m here. I could be in serious danger, Peridot.”

Peridot scoffed slightly, maybe a little insulted that Lapis was doubting her, but chose not to let it get to her - instead, she just gave her roommate a small smile. “No, I didn’t tell her that you’re in my bathroom. I think she would have demanded to come inside if I did,” the blonde shrugged before seating herself on the floor next to the bathtub, watching the mermaid’s face quietly before her gaze shifted ever so slightly to the drowsy baby in her arms. She wondered if it got tiring to hold an infant in one’s arms for several hours on end. She wasn’t even going to try to contest Lapis’ way of doing things, though - as long as Steven said there wasn’t a risk to her health, Peridot wasn’t going to push her on it.

“Is it… even legal for me to be staying here?” the mermaid asked after a moment of silence, apparently relaxing slightly as she became more sure that Peridot hadn’t lured a stranger into the house to see her and gawk at her and potentially hurt her. “I mean… I don’t want to get you in trouble with your government or anything. If that was a government agent…”

“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t,” the blonde frowned slightly, thinking back on the interaction. The strange woman had been  _ very _ well dressed, but… she was pretty sure that, even though it was really weird for someone to be walking around in a suit at nine in the morning when they weren’t in the business district, actual government representatives would put effort towards blending in - and she didn’t exactly blend in with the people one would expect in the suburbs with her muscles and wild hair. Not that she had any sort of experience with it. “As for whether this is legal, I… actually don’t know? But it doesn’t matter. Nobody knows you’re here except me and Steven and  _ maybe _ Steven’s girlfriend.”

Lapis just nodded slowly, leaning back into the bathtub so that she was a little more submerged than she had been before. A frown was on her lips and her brows were furrowed, but for the most part she seemed to be a little bit soothed by Peridot’s reassurances. “Good,” she murmured softly, shifting Malachite slightly so that she could nurse - the blonde was used to the mermaid being topless, considering she had been since they met, so she wasn’t fazed. “If you don’t mind me asking… what did she look like? I want to figure out… something.”

“Oh, she was really tall - like, eight feet tall - and she had really long white hair that reached down to her knees. She was practically  _ made _ of muscles. Her eyes were kinda creepy, they were all yellow - and she was wearing a suit, like, who wears a suit at nine in the morning on a Saturday?” Peridot shook her head, and when she looked at Lapis’ face she was ready to drift off into silence at the look of fear that melted into a stony expression on her guest’s face. So that was what she did, and quiet filled the small bathroom with the exception of Malachite squeaking as she ate.

“Sounds really weird,” was all that Lapis responded with, choosing to not explain  _ why _ the description of the odd woman frightened her so much. “I… sorry for holding you up. You should finish getting ready for whatever it is you have to do today, right?” The mermaid gave a smile that Peridot supposed was meant to be reassuring but looked a little bit too forced to be genuine.

Still, the student was nothing if not ready to cooperate, and she could kind of tell that Lapis wanted to be alone. So she took just a moment to look the other over, trying to find some body language or facial expression that would explain what she was thinking or feeling, but eventually decided that she probably shouldn’t just stare her friend down and wait for her to spill her guts to her. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she replied with a shrug, rising to her feet and giving the mermaid a small smile. “Have a great day, okay? I’ll say bye before I go and then I’ll be back in a couple hours.”

Lapis seemed to be zoning out already again, a frown on her face, but as soon as Peridot stopped talking she returned the fake smile to her face and nodded slightly at the student. “Okay, sounds good,” she spoke in a voice that she supposed was meant to be faked cheerfulness. “I might just get more sleep while you’re gone. I… haven’t been getting as much as I should at night.”

The blonde didn’t know what else she could be doing confined to a bathtub with only a few books lent to her by Steven and a baby to keep her entertained, but she supposed that nightmares probably  _ would _ make it difficult to sleep. “Yeah, it’s probably best to be as rested as possible!” she responded with cheerfulness and energy that was about half forced before backing away to the bathroom door so that she could escape into the hallway and keep getting ready. She probably needed to call Steven to make sure that Lapis would have somebody with her all day… Peridot was worried about her, and while she doubted it was really that possible to hurt oneself confined to a bathroom, she still wanted to make sure that she wasn’t all alone. She didn’t think her friend had a shift at the hospital today.

She didn’t bother to close the bathroom door or her bedroom door when she made her way over to her dresser and pulled off her pajamas. Peridot stretched before pulling on a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants that were only a little bit more official looking than the pairs she wore around the house - she wasn’t doing anything of particular importance today, just going out to the store, but she doubted that it was socially acceptable to be seen out in public in one’s pajamas.

When she poked her head in to say goodbye to Lapis, the mermaid was already making an attempt to take a nap, so she did so quietly and was satisfied with a small wave in response. Peridot put one hand in her pockets before walking out of the house, and used the other to select Steven’s contact on her phone and call him up. Being a responsible adult was… difficult, but  _ somebody _ had to do it.

She got sent directly to voicemail, but she supposed that was reasonable since Steven would either be at work or sleeping in because being a doctor was apparently the most exhausting job possible (she worked with technologically impaired and entitled baby boomers every day in the Geek Squad, so she had a few questions about that, but she wasn’t going to voice them aloud). “Hey Steven, it’s Peri. I’m going to the store, so Lapis is home alone for a little while today, and she seemed to be feeling kind of rough before I left. I should be back in a couple hours, but if I’m not, it’d be great if you could just check up on her. See you later.”

She then hung up her phone with a soft sigh, and continued to walk down the street.


	6. Chapter 6

Lapis did not want to believe that Jasper would disguise herself as a human just to hunt her down, but she had known the lava spirit for several centuries now, and she was not stupid enough to put it past her. She was an obsessive and strong immortal with many different powers and a desperation to keep the mermaid under her control and in her grasp, and she had seen the disguise described to her by Peridot multiple times over the decades because it was a little (a lot) difficult to have sex with a massive being of lava and anger. What vexed her was that she had no idea  _ how _ Jasper was physically capable of holding up that disguise so far away from any source of power.

Was her ex  _ really _ that determined to find her that she felt the need to endanger herself and several humans to do so? Really, Lapis wouldn’t put it past her, but now she felt hopeless. “There’s no escape from her, is there?” the mermaid murmured to Malachite, whose green eyes were staring at her curiously. The baby didn’t acknowledge that she had been spoken to much, aside from a small gurgle directed at her mother. Lapis sighed heavily.

She was startled by a sound from outside the bathroom, which she was quickly able to interpret as a door opening and closing and footsteps walking down the hallway. The mermaid quietly sunk herself a little further into the bathtub as if that would hide her, curling up ever so slightly as she watched over the edge of the tub with narrowed and cautious blue eyes. The bathroom door was not closed, so she was afraid that she would be found quickly and easily by anybody that wanted to cause harm to her - she hoped, prayed even, that Jasper’s hulking form would not appear in the doorway.

Instead of Jasper, however, a familiar young man poked his head in, and Lapis leaned her head back in relief, wincing slightly when it smacked against the edge of the bathtub. “Hello, Steven,” she greeted with a small smile, sitting up straight once more. “I was not expecting to see you today. You startled me.” As she spoke, she went through the last day or so in her head, trying to think of a time that Peridot had told her she would be babysat today - she could not think of one. Either she had just forgotten, Steven was showing up for a visit, or Peridot had explicitly asked him to stay with her without talking to her first. Only the first was acceptable, in her eyes.

“Yeah, it was a last minute decision,” Steven responded with a shrug and an easygoing smile - Lapis wondered how he could be so calm all the time. “Sorry if I scared you, but Peridot sounded like she was worried about you when we talked on the phone. I’m sure she’s not trying to be pushy or coddle you or anything, it’s just… we both want you to be safe and okay. Both her and me.”

She was annoyed by the idea that these two would conspire about anything involving her behind her back, even if it was something with good intentions like helping her mental health. She was determined that she could take care of herself - that if she  _ really _ needed help with anything at all, she would come forward and ask for it herself. Lapis thought the right answer would be to melt with a smile and say that it was fine, that she was only acting weird because of anxiety and paranoia, but she was so irritated by the idea that her friends thought she couldn’t take care of herself that she continued on with an even icier tone and a face void of expression.

“It’s alright,” she responded in a toneless voice, hoping that it was obvious that she was lying. “I just wish that she had asked me if it was okay first. I was looking forward to having a little bit of time alone. I have not exactly had a lot of time to think about my current situation, you know, and I want to have a plan for what my future and Malachite’s will be like when I no longer have you and Peridot keeping me safe anymore.”

“You know, you don’t actually have to go anywhere,” Steven’s voice was gentle and concerned, and he sat down on the floor next to the bathtub, keeping his arms crossed on the edge and resting his chin on his elbows. “If you’re really scared about what your future’s going to be like, you can just stay with Peri! I’m sure she wouldn’t mind - she’s really taken a liking to you, as have I. We can keep you happy and safe for a really long time, and since Malachite has legs I’m sure she could pass for a human and get a really nice education up here on land. You don’t have to worry about making a plan for the future quite yet if you don’t really want to!”

That… startled Lapis, ever so slightly. She hadn’t been expecting for him to go off like that, and she certainly hadn’t been expecting for him to throw out an offer to have a comfortable and safe life on land like that. For Malachite’s sake, she was tempted - and the idea of staying near Peridot certainly made her want to say yes - but for her own, and to remain realistic, she had to refuse. “No. I can’t just live in a bathtub for the rest of my life, and I can’t make Malachite pretend to be something she isn’t. I appreciate the offer, but I really do need to figure out what I’m going to do.”

“I didn’t mean in a bathtub - I meant in like, a pool or something that we could have built!” Steven tried to keep sounding cheerful, but looking at her face he was able to figure out pretty easily that she was serious and would not be budging on this. He sighed heavily, but gave her a small, sad smile. “Okay, yeah, I understand. Just know that the option’s there, I guess.”

Lapis was ready for him to leave her alone now - she was friends with Steven, of course, and she was fond of him, but she didn’t want anybody’s company at the moment; especially one of the two people who conspired together to make sure she knew that she couldn’t take care of herself. She began to feel a little more angry as she remembered, and she raised an eyebrow at the doctor, hoping that he would get the hint to go away for a little while before she got  _ really _ mad.

Luckily for the both of them, Steven seemed to understand, and rose to his feet. “Well, I’ll leave you alone now. I’ll just go watch some Netflix or something - you won’t even know I’m here. Call me if you need anything, and I’ll do my best to do anything to make your day any easier - I’m even comfortable in taking care of Malachite for a little while! I need the practice for when I have kids of my own, and I used to babysit a lot.”

Lapis simply nodded. “Okay, thank you. I’ll call if I need anything, but I don’t think I will.” She then hesitated, and had to force out the rest of what she said. “And… thank you… for being so concerned with my wellbeing. I’m annoyed, but I’m also grateful to have you as a friend.”

She meant it, she really did, she just… wished they didn’t treat her like a helpless guppy that needed her friends to be near her every moment of every day.

“No problem!” Steven responded, cheerful and with his chest puffed out, and simply gave her a salute before leaving the room.

* * *

 

The mermaid had fallen asleep, so she was rather startled when she was awoken by the bathroom door slamming open and hitting the wall. Lapis forced herself to sit up, dazed and confused, and carefully shifted Malachite - who had started crying after being woken up before she was ready and needed to be comforted. Lapis glared towards the door, and what she saw was enough to make her a little bit  _ annoyed _ if a lot relieved that it wasn’t someone more volatile and ready to cause harm.

“I am not a  **child,** Peridot, I don’t need to be babysat,” she spoke in a tone that she hoped sounded as haughty and annoyed as she wanted it to, keeping her chin up as she gently rocked her daughter. “As much as I appreciate how much you care about my wellbeing, I wish you would realize that. And stop looking so scared, we were taking a nap. Steven was right across the house, nothing could have hurt either of us without having to go through him first. I think.” She hoped that she could trust the doctor enough to be able to say that, anyway. She didn’t understand why anybody would put themselves in harm’s way to save  _ her. _ Malachite, maybe, but not her.

“I know! That’s why I was so worried!” Peridot’s eyes were wide, her expression one of panic, and she threw her hands up into the air. “Steven had to leave an hour and a half ago, and he didn’t text me to tell me about it until I let him know that I was leaving! I… I  _ know _ you’re perfectly responsible, but honestly, you seemed really scared about that woman that came by earlier and didn’t tell me why so I wanted somebody to be with you in case you started panicking. Clearly, Steven knows that you’re fine, but I didn’t, and I just don’t want you to be alone if you freak out.”

Oh. Lapis couldn’t help but soften a little at that, and found herself shrinking back a little - she was starting to regret snapping at the both of them and being a little bit rude. “Well, I still wish you’d run it by me first. I know that you were in a rush to leave this morning, but it would have taken less than five minutes to make sure I was okay with somebody in the house.”

Malachite had stopped crying as her mother bounced and rocked her, and Lapis couldn’t help but glance down at her baby daughter with a small, fond smile. It was hard to tell what she would look like when she got a little older, considering she was only a few months old, but the mermaid liked to believe she looked like her. She had to, considering her life would only get harder if she had to spend the next twenty years looking at a child that shared a lot of features with…

Her train of thought drifted off, and she found herself frowning once more, shifting her baby in her arms a little. It… might do her some sort of good to open up about why she had been so scared this morning, she supposed, and maybe it would help put her friends’ minds at ease. “I was just worried because the woman you described sounded a lot like Malachite’s other parent, and if she managed to come all the way out here then I’m sure she’ll find me. I was in a relationship with her for a good fif-,” she trailed off, not wanting to reveal her age, “five years, and I was basically her prisoner for two. It would be easy for me to fall back into her trap.”

Peridot seemed to melt a little at the explanation, and Lapis was somewhat…  _ relieved _ to see her worried expression change into a small smile. “Well, I promise you that we’ll keep you safe from any angry lava spirits that have business with you. Or at least… try to protect you. I’m sure it wasn’t her, though, she was describing a human. I don’t think she would go around humans’ doors asking about a mermaid but describing her as a person.”

“Yeah… you might be right.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> gay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first two paragraphs of this chapter were written midway through so if there are any continuity errors call me out on it and i will fix it as soon as i am able to do so

Time passed.

Not a lot, really. Enough that Lapis managed to recover from her injuries almost completely, so that strenuous activity was no longer dangerous for her help. Enough that more and more trust built up between the human and the mermaid, and enough that they got to know each other so much that neither was afraid to share any secrets or knowledge with the other. This was the way that Peridot learned that Lapis was a solid hundred and thirty years older than she claimed to be. This was the way that Peridot learned about Lapis’ relationship with the elusive Jasper that she was sure was looking for her.

This was how she learned that she had essentially been a prisoner for the last century - how she learned how badly Lapis had been affected by the time that she spent with the depressing caricature of a lover she had kept for a hundred years. How Jasper was protective and manipulative, and how she could be a serious danger to anybody that wanted to take the mermaid away from her and take the  _ power _ that they had when combined away from her. It was… terrifying, really.

As much as Peridot wanted to believe that she was suitable to protect her friend, and she wanted to make sure that she believed that so that she could reassure her. However, she didn’t know how well she could protect her friend from a being like the one she described, and… if Jasper was willing and ready to chase Lapis this far, and was able to disguise herself, then she didn’t know what she could do. It was weird - but so was having a mermaid in your bathtub, and… admittedly, she hadn’t asked if Lapis could disguise herself as a human, so she didn’t know if it was impossible.

She figured that she probably ought to do that, but she didn’t know what was considered rude to mermaids, so she didn’t want to risk it. She just needed to trust that Lapis was telling her everything that she needed to know, and she needed to pray that she had better luck than she had initially thought. She wanted to help more than anything else in the world, but there was nothing she could do if information was being kept from her or if the entire situation was just generally out of her human reach.

Usually, when she walked in to check on Lapis there was about a fifty percent chance that she would be napping or a fifty percent chance that she would be staring off into space. Peridot felt bad that she was keeping her in such a quiet and boring existence, and she wished that there was some way she could take her to do something more interesting, but… there was a lot of danger associated with taking her out of the house, partially because of how humanity in general worked and partially because of the threat of Jasper that was now looming above the both of them. The beach was out of the question; during the day, it was a hot spot for tourists, and at night it was too barren.

Actually… there was another possibility for an outing that was a little more relaxed and further inland than most would expect to find a mermaid, but Peridot wasn’t a hundred percent sure if taking her to the lake was a good idea. She’d be able to swim around, sure, but she would still be in broad daylight, and for the most part alone. It was a risky move, even if it was a secluded area. Maybe she could think on it a little more - the trip would have to wait until the weekend when she didn’t have work or classes anyway, considering the lake was an hour away.

Although she could tell that Lapis was starting to trust her a little more the more time they spent together, she had never been considered trustworthy enough by the mermaid that she was allowed to hold the little baby that she was so protective of. She understood that; she wasn’t exactly experienced with kids, much less infants, and that fact had been no secret.

She was surprised, then, when Lapis held out her daughter wordlessly as soon as she entered the room with an eyebrow raised expectantly.

Peridot blinked, uncertain of how to respond to this, before she quickly walked forward and took the small girl in her arms. Malachite squirmed a little and made a sound of discontent, but bouncing her slightly was enough to calm her down. “My arms are getting tired,” she explained with a shrug after she was sure that her daughter was okay in the crook of the student’s elbow. “And there’s no reason for me to be suspicious of you anymore.”

The mermaid seemed like she was trying to make the whole thing as nonchalant as possible, but Peridot’s heart melted nonetheless. She smiled faintly at Lapis, and turned her attention to Malachite for just a moment - she was looking up at the student with wide and curious green eyes, seemingly calm for the moment. “Well, I appreciate that you trust me now,” she responded, smile brightening ever so slightly - and she couldn’t help but blush deeply at the grin that she received in return. “Is she always this calm when you let somebody else hold her?”

“No. I don’t usually give her to anyone else, but when I do she’s usually really fussy.” Lapis flexed her tail slightly and stretched, a small yawn leaving her. “She must really like you. Not that I blame her, honestly. You’re a very pleasant person to be around.” The unexpected compliment meant a lot coming from someone that had been pretty guarded and tried to be independent despite the fact that she lived in the student’s bathtub. “Um, make sure you support her head. She can kind of hold it up on her own, but it’s best to make sure so she doesn’t break her neck.” She sat up a little in order to straighten out Peridot’s arms and adjust the baby.

The student was so wrapped up in watching her and her thoughts were so concentrated on varying degrees of Lapis that the motion flustered her a little. Peridot… was beginning to accept that she had a little bit of a crush on the mermaid. She was attractive and had a personality that was different from her own but not so different that they were complete opposites, and there were few people that the blonde could think of that would be any sort of indifferent to a  _ mermaid. _

She sank down to sit on the tiled floor of the bathroom, partially so that she could be a little bit closer to eye level with Lapis and partially so that she could hold Malachite a little bit easier - babies were heavier than one would expect. “She looks a lot like you,” Peridot commented calmly, putting one hand to support the infant’s neck and holding her up a little more. “She has your eye and face shape. Her nose is a little bit weird, though. Uh, no offense.”

“None taken,” Lapis shrugged, gently adjusting Peridot’s arms again before resting back into the bath. “Her other parent always formed the oddest nose whenever she shifted to a more human shape. I feel bad that poor Mala is going to inherit it - she deserves to have better looks, and she ended up with the worst combination of our traits,” she shook her head as if disappointed, but the smallest of smiles hinted at on her thin lips was enough to make the human certain that she was just joking. “I can only hope that she gets the best of our personalities. Not that either of us have much to offer. I’m too emotional and stubbornly independent to get anywhere, and she’s too angry and quick tempered.”

“Hey, you have some good qualities too! You’re smart and resourceful and determined - I don’t know anybody else that could swim so far away to escape an abuser with a little baby. And if anything you’ve told me is right, it’s damn impressive that you could even get away from her long enough to make your escape! Malachite has a good influence in you, Lapis. Regardless of how you see yourself, you’re a good person.” Her cheeks flushed a little pink, and she turned her attention to the baby in order to avoid making eye contact with the mermaid. “I haven’t known you very long, but I’m smart enough to figure that out. And you’re good looking, so don’t worry about that.”

It took her a moment to look up at Lapis again, and when she did she was surprised to find that the mermaid was blushing. She was surprised that she was able to fluster the mermaid at all, and that only served to make the flush of her own face even deeper.  _ Crap. _

“Thank you. That means a lot to me,” Lapis murmured, her voice a lot softer than Peridot was used to hearing from her, her gaze drifting down to her lap. The human tried to remind herself to not be a creep and stare, but she wasn’t very used to the mermaid acting shy and embarrassed, so she felt the need to - she was… even cuter at the moment, actually, and Peridot had to curse that revelation. This was totally inappropriate, but she didn’t have the heart to try and force herself to do anything else about it.

Silence passed between them for a while, and even though it wasn’t entirely uncomfortable Peridot was sure that the both of them knew that some sort of tension was in the air - or maybe that was just her and she was completely insane. She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to break the quiet in order to ask an awkward question - she was fine with just sitting silently with her thoughts and glancing between Lapis and Malachite every so often. She needed to try to figure out what was going on, what she should do about trying to keep her charges safe and whether or not she should bring up these feelings she was having - the answers to which were  _ no idea _ and  _ definitely not, _ respectively.

Until, of course, the mermaid shifted upwards slightly so that she was sitting up straight, navy blue eyes staring searchingly at the human for a little while. “I have not thanked you properly for allowing my daughter and I to stay here,” she spoke in a voice barely above a mumble, “and I think you should know that I have begun to see you as a little bit more than a friend. I know it’s stupid, and I know we won’t have a lot of time together if I ever want to go home, but… you should know.”

“Oh,” Peridot managed to squeak out, surprised by the confession that Lapis had shared with her and unsure of how she should react. She needed to take a moment to process that the feelings she was catching weren’t just one sided, that maybe there was some sort of way that the two of them could be together, at least until the mermaid left or until the blonde reached her end - but that was unlikely, it was illogical because they couldn’t hope for a happy ending in a million years.

She kept thinking about this until Lapis pressed her lips against hers and her brain promptly decided that it was time to shut the fuck up.

The human tensed up, one hand going to grip the side of the tub to keep herself grounded, her mind barely able to tell her that she probably needed to kiss back. So that was exactly what she did, deciding that it was time to just forget about the ramifications that would come from whatever they had together and that she might as well enjoy her youth while she could.


	8. Chapter 8

Lapis was rather surprised, when she woke up, to find Peridot staring at her with expectant eyes and holding a very alert and seemingly pleased Malachite in her arms.

The mermaid furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and shifted in order to sit up with her elbows as supports, studying the human carefully and trying to find any sort of strange behavior besides the one she was already exhibiting. Finding nothing much but excitement written on the human’s face, she simply stretched her tail and decided to inquire, surprisingly calmly for how nervous she was being made at the moment, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because I’ve been waiting for you to wake up for an hour, and I have exciting news for you!” the human responded, her words enthusiastic enough that Lapis was a little surprised she wasn’t bouncing in her excitement. The mermaid raised an eyebrow curiously, and Peridot wasted very little time in beginning to ramble happily again. “Steven talked to the people who are in charge of marine life in Beach City - you’re technically marine life - and they agreed that you’re legally allowed to stay with me until you’re better. Or even longer if you want to, apparently, but I don’t expect you to.”

She was a little concerned by this news - did that mean that people would be able to know where she was, what her existence meant? Was this information that Jasper could get her hands on? Lapis didn’t voice this worry, though, because Peridot was clearly in a great mood because of this development, so she instead just sat up a little bit straighter with her head tilted. “What does that mean for me?” she asked slowly, trying not to sound too suspicious of any of this but probably failing. She didn’t understand the point of having her existence formally acknowledged by anybody other than was necessary.

“It means that I don’t have to worry about hiding you from any police or anything! We can go on outings if we want to, which I kind of do.” Malachite gurgled happily in Peridot’s arms, and the blonde gently bounced her to keep her entertained. “There’s a lake a couple of hours away, and I can take you and Malachite there to have a swim in something a little bit bigger than a bathtub. Get some exercise, make sure your muscles don’t wither or anything and keep you happy. It might even help with your recovery to stretch and move around instead of laying around - are you strong enough to swim?”

She was surprised, her eyes wide and her mind in a moment of shock - she was going to be allowed to move around, completely immerse herself, maybe teach her daughter a little bit more of how to swim? The opportunity seemed almost too good to be true, but she nodded enthusiastically instead of just going without saying anything. “Yes, yes, I would love to! I think I’m good. Most of my cuts have scabbed over and I’m not starved anymore.”

By those standards, she wondered if she was strong enough to be freed back into the ocean - physically, maybe she was, but mentally, she was still quite weakened and probably wouldn’t last very long on her own without falling into a depression or locking herself and her daughter away in a fit of paranoia. Or worse - she might end up going back to Jasper and getting back into their mess of a relationship. She wasn’t going to press for her own freedom; she didn’t think she could, really, handle it, and she trusted Steven’s judgement as he kept track of her recovery.

“Okay! We’ll go out today, then! The lake is pretty quiet and secluded and in the middle of the woods, so we should be able to go out without too many people asking questions.” Peridot jumped up to her feet, and gently lowered Malachite into her mother’s arms; Lapis gently pulled her daughter close to her chest, looking down at her as she babbled happily, a small smile on her face. “I’m just gonna make sure we’re all okay to go! I’m gonna get dressed and pack a picnic or something. Just sit tight. Um, will it be okay if you sit out of the water for a little while while I drive us down?”

“Yeah, I was laying on the beach for a long time before you found me and saved me. I can survive a little while to head down to more water.” She flexed her tail, eyes sparkling for the first time in what felt like forever. She couldn’t wait to get into deeper water, even if it was fresh and not quite as expansive as what she was used to. Lapis was becoming impatient, more and more excited with every moment that passed - her heart thrummed in her chest, pent up energy coming out in the form of her gently drumming her claws against the side of the bathtub.

Peridot laughed a little, but nodded in response - she seemed to be in just as good a mood. “Okay, okay, I’ll be right back and we’ll try to get you into the car.” The human kneeled down for just a moment in order to press a quick kiss against Lapis’ cheek, surprising the mermaid and making her blush a little bit.  _ What are we doing, _ she thought for just a moment, but she didn’t want to ruin her giddy mood by hovering over it for too long, so she didn’t.

She watched quietly, gently holding Malachite to her chest, as Peridot backed up out of the bathroom. Lapis had tried not to get too attached to the human that had been nursing her back to health, but it was almost excessively difficult. She was thoughtful, and adorable, and pretty, and god damn it she was just setting herself up for disaster - the little kisses that they exchanged, the blushes, the only thing they hadn’t confessed was that they were romantically interested in each other.

And the mermaid was determined to not be the first one to do so. She knew that as soon as one of them did, they were dooming themselves to become something more, and that was the last thing she wanted - she wasn’t ready for another relationship, let alone with a human she would definitely outlive, and she didn’t want to stay living in a little bathtub until Peridot became old and died while she barely aged, looking like she was in her mid twenties if any different at all in sixty years. She didn’t want the pain, she didn’t want to dry up.

She just wanted to live, and that was what she was trying to do.

* * *

 

Peridot struggled quite a bit with trying to carry a mermaid the size of a human, however skinny she was, out the door and hauling her into her old and beat up Volkswagen. Malachite seemed to be a little bit annoyed that she was being jostled around in her mother’s arms, but she was being remarkably well behaved; Lapis felt a little guilty about putting her human through so much trouble, but having no legs made it much more difficult to actually move and go anywhere.

The drive into the woods felt like it took hours instead of just a half of one, even longer when Peridot had to slow down to navigate once they got into the actual forest area. Lapis sensed the water before she could see it, her skin tingling with the extra moisture in the air, and though it felt different than she knew the ocean would, she knew exactly what it was and she was excited to get into it, feel more like a mermaid than a miserable goldfish wishing for more. Malachite seemed to sense the lake too, because she started to become a little bit fussy at having something so close to home nearby.

“Jesus, I know you’re excited, but relax,” Peridot huffed in a mockery of annoyance, opening the door of her car and walking around to help Lapis out. The mermaid tried to make it as easy as possible to be scooped up in the human’s arms, lifting her tail to make sure that it wouldn’t drag against the floor and holding Malachite so that she was sitting up and able to look around (they had been there long enough that the baby had grown enough to sit up, but not big enough to be left on her own). 

“Sorry, I’m just ready to go!” the mermaid apologized, a bright smile on her face that she didn’t know that Peridot had ever seen in the time they knew each other; she was beginning to suspect that she hadn’t based on the surprised smile that was being returned to her. “You’ve been a really good host and everything, but I’m tired of laying around in a bathtub and I’m ready to swim around and get some exercise!” She rested her head against the human’s shoulder, glancing up and taking a little bit of amusement as she blushed.

“I know, and I’m sorry we didn’t try this earlier. I just wanted to make sure that you were safe.” Peridot’s apology was surprisingly soft and sincere, and Lapis tried not to blush and shoot down anything that she said that made her look like a guilty party. As soon as she heard the unmistakable sound of water moving, she perked up, sitting up straight once more and staring at the body of water that was becoming visible. It was small compared to the ocean, but large for a lake, and she was ready to explore.

As soon as they reached the lake, Peridot waded out into the water with her, and Lapis resisted the urge to just roll out of her arms and jump into the water, knowing that it was shallow and she probably wouldn’t make it very far if she hurt herself falling away from the human. Once they were to the edge of Peridot’s shorts, a little bit past her knees, the human gently lowered the mermaid into the water, and Lapis wasted no time in diving underneath the water and completely submerging herself.

She hadn’t been completely underwater in a long time, and the cool wetness took her by surprise. Her water flowed out around her, and she felt so  _ happy _ \- she hadn’t felt this free in a long, long time, not even when she had run off away from Jasper’s lair, too afraid to really realize how free and alive she was. Lapis let Malachite giggle under the water for a moment, watching her excitedly wave her little arms and grab at her mother’s floaty hair. The mermaid couldn’t help but laugh, and looked around before swimming into a little bit of a more shallow area, gently laying her daughter down so that she could swim off and explore on her own without having to worry about her baby.

She stuck her head up out of the water, grinning brightly at Peridot, who seemed to be pretty happy about how quickly and energetically she was moving given the struggle she had been going through recently. “Keep an eye on Mally, will you? I’ll come back and grab her in a minute, I just want a minute to swim around alone and get used to being free.”

“Of course! Go off and have fun, Lapis, she’s safe with me.” Peridot glanced around, and sat down in the shallow water, wincing as her clothes got soaked (much to Lapis’ amusement). “I should’ve worn a bathing suit, damn it.”

Lapis laughed, a soft sound that sounded so much different in the air than it was in the water, and ducked her head back underneath the miniscule waves. She closed her eyes, letting out a small sigh and letting the cold liquid seep into her skin, her body, her very soul.

She spent just a moment resting and letting herself get used to freedom before she rose from sitting at the bottom of the lake and sped off into the depths.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis, Malachite, and Peridot spend a day in the lake.

When she pulled herself out of the depths of the wake and made her way back to the calm shallow waters, Lapis was happier than she had been in a long time. Her dark blue eyes were sparkling with delight, a wide grin showing off her slightly scary shark like teeth and her posture less slumped than it had been in the entire time that she had been living amongst humans. Peridot was instantly happy that she had taken the risk and taken her to the lake. Even Malachite seemed like she was happier despite being a mostly gleeful or apathetic baby, giggles escaping her every time a little guppy swam by.

Peridot had even gotten soaked from head to toe, her usually messy hair plastered around the sides of her face and her clothes clinging to her body like a second skin. It was sticky and pretty uncomfortable, but she didn’t care, because she could see that Lapis and Malachite were having a much nicer time than they had in a while. She wasn’t a huge fan of water, but just the two of them were enough to make her step out of her comfort zone a little and live life a little bit differently.

“You look like you’ve been underwater as much as I have! How did you get that wet if you never stepped out of the shallows?” Lapis asked her, almost seeming to  _ glow _ in her delight at her day out of the house. Internally, Peridot promised that they would do this again in the near future - the next time she had a day off from classes and her part time job, even. That was a ways off, though, so she wasn’t going to think on it too much - she just needed to enjoy the day as it was, and not alienate Lapis by zoning out while she was sitting at her side and talking.

“Your kid likes to splash,” the human responded with a shrug, the smile on her face an amused one. “I know she’s really little, but it takes a lot to hang around her and  _ not _ get soaked. Doesn’t help much that she keeps trying to crawl out into deeper water so I have to chase her down.” She was trying to sound like she was annoyed and complaining, but she was in a little bit too good a mood to do so - that didn’t change when Malachite began to try and crawl to her mother and she seriously considered pulling her back again out of paranoia. Lapis stepped forward and lifted her into her arms, though, before Peridot could really reach a conclusion.

“She’s a little mischievous,” the mermaid smiled down at her small daughter, letting the baby take hold of her pointer finger in one pudgy hand and laughing slightly at the happy nonsensical babbles and noises she made. “I think she’s just having fun, and she’s trying to make you have fun, too. Aren’t you, Mala?” she directed the last question to her daughter, and the baby squealed and waved her hand in response; Peridot couldn’t help but smile at the seamless happiness of the child.

“Honestly, I’m just having fun watching you two in the water. I’m happy as long as you’re happy.” She didn’t say that honestly a lot, usually just speaking that way to be polite to whoever she was talking to, but for once she didn’t have to lie. She was genuinely pleased that she had made a mermaid and a hybrid child she cared about happy; maybe even more pleased than she would be if she was doing something that was close to her own interests. This was new to her. She could only assume it was because she cared more about these two than she cared about most others.

“Well, we’re going to have to get you to actually do something interesting besides sit down and watch the baby.” Lapis’ tone was matter of fact and determined, and she seemed to think for a moment, glancing around and bouncing her daughter on her hip. “Do you have any old cloth I can borrow for a moment? I’m going to tie Malachite onto me so I don’t have to leave her laying by herself.”

“Um.” The human hesitated momentarily, and looked around the edge of the water for just a moment before sighing heavily and wading out to grab the last piece of fry fabric that was readily available. Peridot didn’t really want to get the blanket she had brought to sit on wet, but she didn’t want to argue with Lapis either, and if she wanted to become like a fishy Sacagawea then she wasn’t going to stand in her way. It wasn’t like she was really using it, anyway, and so she picked up the blanket and tossed it over to the mermaid, who caught it with a bright smile and tied Malachite to her front as gently as possible, like a low budget baby carrier.

“Okay, come here, we’re going to go for a swim. Cling to my back, and I’ll take you out kind of deep but not  _ too _ deep. I think there’s a way to let you breathe underwater briefly so that you can look around underwater, so we can try that.” She seemed pretty excited about this idea, so even though Peridot was kind of nervous about the idea of going way over her head in the lake, she stepped forward without really thinking about it and followed Lapis to a point where she was about up to her chest in water. She wrapped her arms tightly around the mermaid’s shoulders and her legs around her middle, hoping that she wasn’t about to interfere with the movement of her tail, and squealed in surprise when the mermaid propelled them forward and began to swim.

For a moment, Peridot remembered that she had never bothered to learn how to even keep herself buoyant as a child, but she trusted Lapis enough that she wasn’t  _ too _ scared.

That wasn’t going to stop her from being a little nervous, though.

Malachite seemed to be more amused by the speed and sudden increase of water underneath them, at least, because even though she was underneath the cover of small waves and the surface of the lake Peridot could see that she was smiling excitedly. Lapis was being considerate enough to keep just close enough to the surface that Peridot wasn’t completely submerged, but she still felt the need to angle herself upwards just in case the mermaid ducked underneath the water and she needed to stretch for air. It was killing her back, but it made her feel a little bit safer.

“Okay, I’m going to take us underwater. Just hold your breath, and I’ll help you out when you start getting low on oxygen, alright?” Lapis finally spoke up after glancing back to make eye contact, and Peridot was a little bit startled by the sound of her voice after being pulled along in silence for so long. She took a small breath, and was about to say something again, only for the mermaid to speak up once more. “I’ll keep you safe and make sure you don’t get hurt or drown, I promise. Just trust me.”

The human hesitated for a moment, a little afraid to nod and agree, but she eventually managed to nod her head with a little bit of an apprehensive look on her face. Lapis smiled brightly, and dove underneath the surface of the water; Peridot was startled by the sudden rush of liquid covering her, mildly shocked by the sudden drop in temperature and taking perhaps a half a moment to get used to it before she managed to open her eyes, having to blink a few times in order to get used to the almost blindness and managing to get a somewhat blurry but otherwise surprising view of underwater.

Sunlight pushed underneath the surface with the slightest filter of the waves, and multiple fish of various different sizes swam around them, oblivious. She was sure this was nothing like it would be underneath the ocean instead, but Peridot was captivated by the seemingly completely different world that she was now exposed to. Lapis was looking back at her, and the human didn’t really notice until she glanced over and found dark blue eyes staring her down, watching her expression, and she couldn’t help but blush a little bit as they made eye contact.

The human waited momentarily before she flicked her powerful tail once again and pushed the both of them forward. Peridot clung a little bit tighter, more startled now that they were underwater and she was less heavy, and refused to lighten her grip on the mermaid until she suddenly remembered that she needed to breathe thanks to her lungs beginning to burn from the lack of breathing. The human loosened her death grip in order to frantically tap on Lapis’ shoulder, hoping that would get the message across decently enough considering she couldn’t really talk.

The mermaid glanced back, and seemed to get what she needed, considering she was probably beginning to turn blue at this point. What she was not prepared for, however, was exactly  _ how _ Lapis was going to give her oxygen - instead of just swimming upwards in order to let her breathe, she turned a little in order to press their lips together. Peridot could feel her entire face turn bright red despite the cold water that they were surrounded by, and if she wasn’t so desperate for air she wouldn’t have been able to breathe in the stale but livable air that was pushed into her lungs.

Once she was holding her breath again and wasn’t about to drown, Lapis continued swimming, and Peridot looked around with wonder. As time went by, she became more relaxed while clinging to the mermaid’s back, to the point where she was okay with reaching out and gently running her hand against the smooth, scaly sides of some of the fish that swam past them, and was even willing to reach down to the bottom sand in order to thread her fingers through some algae gathered there, wrinkling her nose at its slimy texture but fascinated by the underwater world nonetheless. Even Lapis essentially kissing her in order to keep her breathing was beginning to get less startling as she got used to it.

When Lapis finally swam up to the surface of the water, it was only because Malachite was beginning to fall asleep against her chest, as was explained to Peridot. The human took a gulp of fresh air as soon as they broke the surface, and was startled to find that it was the evening already, the sky a deep shade of orange and the world getting darker. It felt more like they had been underwater for ten minutes instead of the hours they must have spent, and when Lapis swam to the point where the water was up to Peridot’s waist she stepped off and realized how cold her bare arms were.

“I think we should head home now,” she spoke up, trying to keep her teeth from chattering and wishing desperately that she hadn’t let Lapis get their blanket soaked even though she knew that the beach blanket wouldn’t really be able to keep her all that warm.

She felt almost guilty as she lifted the mermaid and hybrid out of the lake and began to carry them back to the car, ignoring as the lake water covering them dripped onto the interior of the vehicle and rolling through the woods. She really didn’t want to return her love interest to the bathtub after spending a day letting her swim free in a lake; she almost wanted to drive her right to the ocean and set her free so that it couldn’t have just been a tease. She knew, though, that in order to make sure that Lapis recovered completely and was safe and sound from the volcano spirit that wanted to take her.

Maybe someday.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading, kudos and comments appreciated <3


End file.
